He reached out and touched my face, his fingers cold against my skin. I tried to pull away, but my body refused to cooperate.
“I was in love with Mariella, you know,” he said, his voice taking on a distant quality. “Before your father. I was just a young recruit. And she was…extraordinary. Brilliant, beautiful, fierce.” His thumb traced my cheekbone in a way that made my stomach turn. “You have her eyes.”
I struggled against the drug, fighting to keep my expression neutral as revulsion crawled through me.
“The Paraskia ordered me to stand down when Alfredo claimed her,” Grey continued, his tone hardening. “At that time, they valued the alliance with the Salvini family morethan my happiness, more than hers.” He shook his head as if he still couldn’t fathom the audacity.
He returned to his chair, his movements precise and controlled despite the emotion in his voice. “They should have anticipated the consequences. But that’s ancient history now. Let’s discuss more recent events. Your activities as Iset, for example. You’ve been quite…disruptive.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I managed, the lie tasting bitter on my tongue.
Grey’s smile was cold. “You cost me millions, Isabella. Did you think I wouldn’t find you? That operation stationed in Singapore was particularly profitable until you redirected all the funds to various charities. Very clever, but very…inconvenient. It was you, wasn’t it?”
My mind raced despite the drug’s fog. Singapore. I had redirected funds from a trafficking operation there last year, after we’d traced the money through a labyrinth of shell companies before exposing the entire network. We’d never been able to identify the ultimate bosses of the operation—the masterminds behind it all. But yes, we technically stole all of their funds, which effectively ended their ability to operate.
So Grey was behind that? Or was it the Paraskia…and Ivan? The realization made me nauseous. “I didn’t know that was you, running a trafficking ring.”
“I prefer to think of it as asset management,” Grey replied smoothly. “Human resources are the most valuable commodity in our business. But yes, that was one of my more lucrative ventures until you interfered.”
“My ventures,” not the Paraskia’s but his own. So Ivan wasn’t involved?
He opened a laptop and turned it to face me. “The Falcones’ investigation is getting dangerously close to exposing several of my operations. So I’m running out of time for small talk.”
He pushed the laptop closer, and someone pushed my chair toward the desk. “I need you to access the Paraskia’s central database. There are some records I need straightened out.”
My fingers itched to touch the keyboard, the drug making it hard to resist. But something in me rebelled against the compulsion. “Why can’t you do it yourself? Don’t you have access?”
Grey’s jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. “My access is…limited in certain areas. The organization values its compartmentalization.”
“So you’re asking me to hack into your own organization’s systems?” I fought to keep my thoughts clear.
“That’s the whole reason you’re here on this island. I couldn’t make it any easier for you, could I? Direct access to the network from the inside.”
He gave me a smile, an honest one, which was so, so creepy. Was he really thinking he was entitled to my services? “What records do you need?”
“The Paraskia monitors everything,” Grey said dismissively. “Even its highest-ranking members. But you don’t need to know. Just give me access, and I’ll take it from there.”
I stared at Grey, then at the laptop he nudged closer to me. I tried to rack my brain for something to stall for time. “Why me? There are other hackers.”
Grey’s patience visibly thinned. “I’ve been monitoring you since you were a child, Isabella. Steering your development. Molding your talents. Many of the coincidences in your life weren’t coincidences at all. And when I found out you’re Iset… I didn’t spend all that time and energy for nothing.”
A chill ran through me despite the drug’s warmth. “What are you talking about?”
“That computer club you joined in high school? The mentor who took such interest in your abilities? You had the brains, and you had natural talent.” His smile was that of a proud creator admiring his work. “But talent and brains are nothing without proper development. I made you; now I need this in return.”
My mind reeled with the implications. How much of my life had been manipulated? How long had I been a pawn in his game? It was almost comical. Here I thought my biggest oppressor had been my father and the oppressive traditions of my Italian Mafia family.
“You’ve hidden your identity well,” Grey continued, his tone shifting between admiration and frustration. “Iset—the Egyptian goddess. Clever. But you can’t outsmart me, Isabella. I’ve known everything about you, and I’ve been playing this game far longer than you’ve been alive.”
The more he spoke, the more I realized how truly dangerous Grey was. Not just powerful or corrupt, but unhinged in his obsessive self-flattery and narcissism. I needed to keep him talking, to buy time.
“Tell me about my mother,” I said, steering the conversation toward what seemed to affect him most. “You said you knew her before my father.”
Grey’s expression softened, and for a moment, he looked almost human. “Mariella, Marcus, and I were inseparable once. The dream team, they called us. We had dreams…” His eyes grew distant. “Then your father appeared, and everything changed. Alfredo Salvini with his money, power, charm, and connections.” Grey nodded, lost in memory. “Your mother was supposed to be mine.” The expression on his face hardened. “But your father was more valuable. They took her from me.”
He leaned forward, his eyes boring into mine. “I watched her from afar, watched you children grow up. I knew you were like her when…”
The laptop screen flickered, pulling Grey’s attention back to the present. His expression darkened as he saw I hadn’t even touched the keyboard.
